orig post: JUN 2019

Title of entry

this was already a loaded statement but they rly wanted to make sure i fixated on it by dropping this right after.

anyways. the key point of this theory doesn’t need much explaining. i think this:

is a pretty definitive look at what that “greater monster” is.
the game even names it for us.

hell, you can even see that same distinctive crown in marie’s action shot.

it’s no secret that the skull heart is directly connected to lamia, double, and the trinity; and that it manipulates people to do their bidding. but, to what end?

the skull heart didn’t always exist, but if i had to guess what the reason for its creation/appearance was, it’s probably this.

at one point, venus, aeon, and lamia/the Mother did all exist in the normal world or dimension or whatever where the bulk of the game takes place, but then neferu’s rebellion happened and they didn’t any more. they weren’t entirely “killed” it seems; they still exist somewhere, in some form, over in “The Abyss”, but they’re uh. 

they’re not happy about it.
and while that doesn’t really say anything about How the skull heart came to exist, it may attest as to why

lamia and her children had an empire in this world; i imagine they’re pretty pissed...

...about having it all taken from them,  and about being forced to exist in some alternate plane that’s almost completely disconnected to it. 

and i imagine they’d want to reclaim their throne. 

the skull heart came into being as the means to this end. it’s the conduit for the Mother’s reentry into this plane. it’s why it’s so important that it has the right kind of host;

the more strongly it’s bonded to its host (and perhaps, by extension, this world?), the more solidly it can take on the Mother’s form and allow her to exert her will. 

what we see on marie in her boss battle is only its earliest stages on a poor host, but the distinctive wings and crown are still standout features. 
and when the Mother’s rage at seeing her killer overpowers the will of its severely weakened host, we’re allowed to see a far more advanced state of where exactly a bond with the skull heart is headed.